


The Bond

by Broba



Category: Doctor Who, Homestuck
Genre: Awww Yee Crossover Time, Crossover, Doctor Who Crossover, Eleventh Doctor Era, Gen, Homestuck Kink Meme
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-26
Updated: 2013-04-02
Packaged: 2017-12-06 14:56:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/736961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broba/pseuds/Broba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kinkmeme prompt- exactly what would happen if instead of being raised by Bro, the young homeless lad Dave Strider had been taken in by a certain temporally dislocated Doctor? Welcome to the world of Time Knight Lord Dave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The summer was killing Houston, Texas. The city was familiar with hot summers, with sultry summers, even with boiling summers, but this was a summer filled with loathing and aggression. This summer was intent on murder, and going about its' grim work with efficiency. Even to the natives the heat was too much. On the news all the talk was of freak heatwaves and pressure-systems coming off the Atlantic, but what no one could say was when it would all end. The hospitals were filled with the stricken, and more cases of dehydration and heat prostration were coming in daily. No one knew when it would end, the summer that was killing Houston.  
  
Blacktop roads shimmered and asphalt gleamed wetly. When the wind picked up, it felt like a faceful of hot coals. The main southbound highway leading into Houston was packed with vehicles leaving, and far fewer coming into town. Against this backdrop of sluggish traffic making an endless drone of revving engines interspersed with the crackle and hiss of dying cars, defeated by the conditions, no one noticed a new sound blending into the roar, a rising and falling, groaning and reverberating sound, the heartbeat of an incomprehensible machine. Perhaps, picked out somewhere in the endless heat-haze rising from the roads, there came a flash of blue.  
  
Dave Strider strode, alone, along the bank of the freeway and down into the cutting alongside, a trough lined in smooth concrete that formed something like a man-made valley that ran alongside the road. In theory it formed part of the flood defences for the city, in the uncommon but not unknown event of flash flooding. The concrete had been warmed almost to baking by the morning sun, and in the shade underneath a massive flyover could be found places to escape the relentless heat, and perhaps find a place to sleep that would stay a little warm through the night. It wasn't much, but Dave had come to rely on such bolt-holes throughout the city and so long as the damned heat didn't get any worse he'd survive- he always survived. As things stood, the sun was bad news for such a pale kid, and he stuck to shadowed corners whenever he could. While this summer refused to quit, Dave Strider intended to hole up and stay as far out of the world as he could. He crammed his narrow frame into the space where the sloping wall of the cutting met the highway overpass overhead and formed a natural crawlspace. He could lay back here and reach up to press his palm against the concrete surface above, and when he did he could feel the rumbling vibrations of heavy vehicles barrelling past above him. It felt like a constant bass crescendo, like music. It was cool.  
  
Dave didn't remember falling asleep, but when he woke up it was dark. The rough surface he was laying on had become colder, but still held a little heat even in the dead of night. He was, however, aching bitterly in all his joints from sleeping in an awkward position on an unforgivingly hard surface. He rolled onto his side awkwardly, and he was about to wriggle his way out of his hiding spot when he heard a sound that made him freeze. Someone was coming, gasping and coughing for breath and they threw themselves along the bottom of the cutting below him. He knew the sound of someone desperate when he heard it, and he pushed himself further into his hiding place. At night, alone, he knew better then to trust anyone and he certainly wasn't the only homeless person to take shelter in such places. Desperate and hungry added up to dangerous, on the streets. By shifting his position he could get good view, and he raised his shades to look over the expanse below him for a threat. Sure enough, he saw in the distance a shambling figure, coated in a random assortment of rags and mismatched clothing, racing towards the overpass where he hid. The man had to be boiling in that getup, he was wearing at least three layers and even in the dead of night Dave was sweltering in just his thin tee-shirt. He shook his head in bemusement- there was no accounting for the bizarre habits of some indigents. The man was cradling something round under one arm, holding it as though his very life depended on it, in fact. He was clearly running from something that had put the fear in him something fierce, and Dave decided then and there that he wanted nothing to do with this entire bullshit. He would sit back, close his eyes, and never think on this interruption to a shitty night's sleep again.  
  
But he couldn't. The man was being chased- there were three people following him. They, too, were overdressed, in thick all-encompassing long coats and scarves. Scarves! Their quarry stumbled, gasping for breath. He was close now, at the base of the defile beneath Dave. The three hunters came upon him, forming a semicircle and all drawing odd, silvery weapons that glinted wickedly. Dave caught his breath and held it, as he realised something far more then a simple fight over the best sleeping-spot or a scrap of food was going on. They had to be foreigners- they spoke in a harsh, guttural series of hisses and clicks and- belches? The three of them interrogated the one they had chased down, and were answered in weak, quavering tones. Dave understood none of it, but he could gather plenty from the way they were shouting and waving their weapons threateningly. Whatever their quarry was telling them in response obviously wasn't good enough and things were heading south fast. One of the hunters- obviously the leader- extended his weapon and he was clearly about to shoot. The man at his feet screamed in fear, and Dave couldn't take it any more. He let out a cry of shock before he knew what he was doing. Shock and something else- he was on his feet and scampering down the concrete defile towards the group. He had no idea what he wanted to do, or even what he could do, but his fists were balled and he came at them swinging. Even through his shades, he caught sight of a face- an inhuman face, with a mouth far too wide and serrated lines of wicked teeth, snarling in rage at him and a weapon raised in his direction. With a sudden shock of dread Dave Strider knew that this monstrous thing was about to kill him stone dead.  
  
The man-lizard-shark-monster roared and readied his weapon. He had a perfectly clear shot at Dave, he had all the time in the world and there was no hurry at all. He wanted to make a clean kill. Dave knew these things with a crystal clarity he had never felt before, a knowledge that slid through his mind like an arrow, fired with unerring skill. He was ready for what was to come, he knew, when something else came into view. It was a silver ball, indented at each pole where was inset a glowing purple jewel. It dropped from above- someone had tossed something down at them from the overpass. Instinctively Dave curled into a ball as the stasis grenade went off, expanding a flickering, shimmering orb of raw temporal energy in all directions. Looking up he saw that the creatures were frozen solid, and in fact the weapon pointed at him had discharged. A thin, glowing blob of energy had oozed out of the end of the thing and Dave had no doubt that a beam of the stuff had been about to pierce him, leaving nothing but ash behind.  
  
From above, a thin rope snaked down and slapped against the ground. It twitched in the air as a slender figure swarmed down, with a little chuckle. She was like no one Dave had ever seen before, she moved with a grace and a certainty- a presence- that boldly dared the world to stand in his way. She wore something like a white jumpsuit that did things to his libido far worse then a stasis grenade could manage. She hopped over to the creature that had been hunched over, waiting to die, and casually plucked the burden away from his frozen arms.  
“Sorry, sweetie, but I think I can make better use of it. You understand,” she laughed.  
Dave cleared his throat, “h-hey,” he managed, his voice cracking half way through.  
The woman span on her heel and had a pistol out and pointed at him in an instant, and Dave scrambled backwards with a yelp.  
“Hey! No! Wait, wait a sec! I'm not with those guys, I swear!”  
She frowned, looking him over.  
“How are you able to do that?” She enquired.  
“Do what? Cause half the shit I'm about to do I swear I got no control over!”  
“Move! Talk! How are you doing that? You should be time-locked, just like these happy darlings,” she rapped the arm of the one who had been shooting at Dave for emphasis, and the limb was indeed rigid.  
“Uh, I don't know? Like, I'm sorry, should- should I do something?”  
“Well now!” She was advancing on him, in a way that made him want to sink back into the earth, “this is very interesting in-deed! We really should get to know one another better, I do enjoy interesting people, you know.”  
“Y-you do?”  
“Intensely so.”  
“Cool,” he whimpered.  
“What's your name, young man?”  
“Dave. I mean, Strider. Dave Strider. You know, like, I walk around a lot. Strider.” It sounded infinitely cooler a name in his head then it was now coming across.  
“Hello Dave,” she said, actually injecting a smile into her voice, “I'm River Song. You know, like, what happens when you open your mouth and-”  
“River!” A voice called out from behind them, and they were joined by someone who managed to somehow shamble his way down the steep concrete defile without somehow breaking his ankles, “I told you- no weapons!”  
River sighed theatrically, “ha-a-ardly a weapon, darling, they'll be fine in an hour or so.”  
“That's not the point,” said an impossibly earnest and forthright looking man who managed to gangle his way about like his limbs were jointed with rubber bands, “I don't like grenades.”  
“Oh! Speaking of which, the stasis grenade completely failed to affect this young man here. Dave, meet the Doctor. Don't bother asking who, he likes the mystery.”  
She stuck her tongue out teasingly and the Doctor frowned, waving a strange device like a fat pen with a clawed attachment at one end surmounted by a vivid green light. He waved it vaguely at Dave.  
“That's impossible, if he was in the blast wave then he would have been frozen in-” the Doctor paused, and lowered his sonic screwdriver slowly as he stared fixedly at Dave, “-time.”  
“That's what I thought, yet here he is.”  
“Hey,” Dave said weakly, “how's it going? I'm having a crazy night.”  
“Impossible,” repeated the Doctor, “that shouldn't happen at all. I don't like impossible things. River, why is there an impossible thing?”  
“Oh don't let it get to you darling, why not work it out later? These lovely ladies won't be stuck here forever you know, we don't have all the time in the world. Not all of us, anyway.”  
“Ladies?” Dave asked, his eyebrows raising above the rims of his shades.  
“Quite so,” said the Doctor, “meet Rakkhed, Rakkhtar and Rakkheel, also known as the Three Sisters Lacking Mercy, the favoured assassin-huntresses of the Green Court. You're really quite lucky we arrived when we did.” As he spoke he passed the screwdriver over their weapons, “there. We'll have no more shooting around here.”  
“They- they aren't human!”  
“Of course not,” the Doctor snorted at the very idea and smirked, “why would the Green Court hire any humans? They only pay you in desiccated Feslin-grubs, you know. Though I have to say, once you acquire the taste for them they can be quite charming. Though if you are interested in a preserved-insect-based economy, the Green Court is the way to go.”  
“Urrgh. Sorry I asked,” Dave muttered.  
River patted him on the shoulder, “most people are, around him. Come along, dears, time to go!”  
“No!” The Doctor drew himself up to his full height, “I forbid it. It's far too dangerous for a child.”  
“Nonsense, we're all children compared to you,” River patted him on the tweed lapel affectionately, “and besides, I thought you couldn't resist a mystery. Dave here certainly is one.”  
  
The Doctor looked uneasy. Whenever he glanced at Dave it seemed as though his gaze wanted to be somewhere else. Watching the boy was like trying to stare at one bee within a swarming honeycomb. A strange realisation was sneaking up on him, but slowly. A truth was revealing itself with difficulty.  
“Perhaps you're right,” he sighed. “It can't hurt to talk more in the TARDIS.”  
River smiled warmly, “that's right! Come along Dave, you're really going to enjoy this!”  
“Hey, wait! I ain't going anywhere, you can't just do this!”  
“Fine,” River shrugged, “in an hour you can chat about it with Rakkhed, Rakkhtar and Rakkheel. They had more then enough time to pick up your scent, you know.”  
“Uh,” Dave hesitated, then nodded firmly, “hey, wait up!”  
  
The Doctor threw open the doors to the TARDIS theatrically and practically danced his way across the control room. He always was a little giddy in such moments.  
“Welcome to the TARDIS! Please mind the gap, remember to keep all limbs within the trans-dimensional anchoring field at all times, and don't forget to tip your waiter!”  
“Woah,” Dave spun slowly, taking it all in. Vivid, orange light threw crazy-angled walls inset with hexagonal insets into sharp relief, and the place was dominated by an enormous glowing column that grew out of a wildly arrayed hexagonal control console which seemed to have been put together out of the contents of a hermit's attic.  
“I know,” the Doctor grinned, while behind them River closed the doors.  
“You're going to overwhelm the boy,” she said, in a sing-song 'don't say I didn't warn you' voice.  
“This is,” Dave began, “I can't even-”  
“Yes,” the Doctor nodded, “I know.”  
“It's so cool!”  
That seemed to please the Doctor immensely and he ruffled Dave's hair with a laugh. For his part Dave squirmed and immediately rearranged his hair, while the Doctor sprang to the console and began flipping switches and turning dials.  
  
River was still carrying the object she had stolen, and when she unwrapped it carefully she revealed a pale, opalescent orb which seemed to pulse with an inner light. She set it down gingerly on a finely carved genuine Chippendale end-table which had absolutely no right being there at all. In the centre of the control room the time-rotor was pulsing, the column rose and fell as the TARDIS heaved and wrenched herself free from the base shackled of time and space.  
“Hey,” Dave walked up to the pearly orb, “what even is that thing? Why was that guy running with it.”  
“That,” said River proudly, “is an enclosed pressure-lensing array, calibrated to cause a permanent atmospheric pressure wave in a very distinct helicocentral pattern.”  
“Oh, right, I figured it might be something cool, but those pressure-doohickeys are nickel and dime shit.”  
  
At the console the Doctor was busy doing something incomprehensible with the keyboard of an antique 1920's cast-iron typewriter which was somehow incorporated into the machinery.  
“What River meant to say,” he added archly, “is that it is a device intended to create an unusually hot weather system- permanently.”  
“What, this thing has been frying Houston?”  
“And the area around it, yes.”  
“Why?”  
River patted the orb affectionately. “Remember the lizard things before? They like it hot. If we hadn't stopped them then they would have gradually raised the temperature of the whole Earth to their preferred level. Then I imagine they would invade, or whatnot. The usual.”  
“Yes, River,” the Doctor cut in, “which is why we intervened in the nick of time in order to take the orb and destroy it, and certainly not to sell it to the highest bidder.”  
River gave him a petulant look, and he just nodded firmly.  
“Hang on,” Dave said slowly, “you're saying lizard people were going to invade the planet, starting in... Houston?”  
“Yes darling, apparently it was the only place on the planet where they could manipulate the weather so blatantly without anyone blaming it on an unnatural effect.”  
“Figures,” Dave sighed, “no one will believe in global warming even when it's being done by lizards from beyond the stars.”  
The Doctor hopped down from the console toward them and began examining the orb closely himself. “Not beyond the stars, just from within them. And besides, it seems that the Green Council had decided the work wasn't progressing fast enough, and sent the sisters to give the local lizard chief a bit of encouragement. Not too good at people management, the Green Council. Impatient. Which is ironic when you think about the reptile temperament.”  
  
Dave backed away while the Doctor worked on the orb, muttering to himself about space lizards. He found a seat and settled down, to gather his thoughts and try to think his way through everything he had seen tonight. River watched him, and the Doctor. She looked from one to the other of them with curiosity, and when Dave was about to say something she held a finger to her lips with a quizzical frown, and Dave clamped his mouth shut.  
“Doctor,” she said causally, “what do you want to do about him?”  
“Mmm?” He replied, tapping the orb with a knuckle gently, “who?”  
“Dave.”  
“Dave who?”  
“Dave sat behind you.”  
The Doctor straightened up and frowned at her, about to ask what she meant. She pointed in Dave's direction and he looked over, starting in surprise when he noticed Dave.  
“Oh!” He tapped his lips with his fingertips curiously, “I completely forgot...”  
“No,” said River, “you didn't forget. Something is trying to make you ignore Dave.”  
“Oh. Well, I'm sure it's nothing. Now, this orb-”  
Suddenly, River slapped him sharply. He looked at her with a shocked expression and put his hand to his cheek.  
“Doctor! You have to fight through it, there's some kind of perception filter trying to make you stop paying attention to Dave!”  
  
That was enough to get him interested. The Doctor nodded grimly and beckoned to Dave, taking his hand. It seemed that he could only stay fixed on Dave's presence when they were in direct contact. He took Dave over to the console, and yanked down an antiquated television screen fitted in a plastic space-age mount that was suspended on an scissoring extendible arm. He stared feeding information into the TARDIS computer, and the results were displayed on the screen.  
“Well well,” breathed the Doctor, “that's not what I expected at all.”  
“What is it Doctor?” River looked over the screen, and her eyebrows went up.  
“Hey, what's up?” Dave piped up, “am I sick or something? Shit, hit me with it, Doc. I can take it. Lay it on me. Is my ass going to fall off? 'Cause that's easy my best feature, you got to help me.”  
“Nothing like that,” said the Doctor softly, “but I know why you have a perception filter on you. Especially one that stops me from looking at you.”  
“That can't be right,” River whispered, “check it again.”  
“No, it's right. Dave here has been specifically shielded from the sight of Time Lords.”  
“Is that a new disease?” Dave sniffed, “I never heard of any of that shit. What's a Time Lord?”  
“You should know,” said the Doctor, “you are one.”  
  



	2. Chapter 2

“I don't get it,” said Dave accurately, “how will that do anything.”  
“Simple!” The Doctor beamed, barely an inch away from his face, “the perception filter is anchored to the specific mental-perceptive wave form of a Time Lord brain, which means that when we run the combined outputs of our visual cortices through the TARDIS analyser we'll have a combined anti-wave that will allow us to collapse the perception filer entirely!”  
“Is... that actual words? Is all that real stuff!”  
“Oh yes,” the Doctor was quietly excited, and bounced on the balls of his feet happily, “this is really, really quite incredibly clever!”  
“So we plug our brains into the big blinky thing over there-”  
“The dual-wave sequencer, yes,”  
“And it all goes into the crazy deal with all the pipes-”  
“The combiner-annihilator, yes,”  
“And that fixes whatever is going on?”  
“Yes! See, it all makes perfectly rational sense!”  
“Okay. Just one thing though,”  
“Yes?”  
“Remind me why we have to stand here holding hands?”  
  
Behind them River was hauling a coil of heavy cabling across the room and paused to give them both a glare, “and why do I have to do all the work?”  
  
Ignoring her, the Doctor went on unperturbed. “Unfortunately the perception filter is increasing in strength the longer I'm exposed to it. If I don't hold on to you, then I'd forget I ever saw you in, say three seconds.”  
“Yeah. Kinda gay, though, man.”  
“Oh I don't know, I think it's nice.”  
“Right. I guess.”  
They continued to look at one another while River worked. The Doctor seemed far too gleeful, he grinned constantly into his own reflection in Dave's shades, while the boy just stared impassively.  
“This is kind of awkward, dude.”  
“Oh don't worry, River will be finished soon, she's really quite good.”  
  
Behind them there was the sound of a triple-core crystal wire cable coil being thrown with more then a little vengeance against a combiner-annihilator. “I'd be happy to have a hand, you know!”  
“Sorry!” The Doctor waved at her, “three seconds, remember?”  
“Convenient.”  
River grumbled as she got back to work, and the Doctor got back to looking at Dave.  
  
“So,” Dave tried again, “Time Lord, huh?”  
“That's right,” said the Doctor softly.  
“Are you sure? I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm just, like, a guy.”  
“Well you have the physiology. In terms of  your species, yes. We won't be completely sure till the perception filter is down, and then we should feel the Bond.”  
“Hey wait up, no one said anything about that, what even is that?”  
“Time Lords always recognise one another. We're linked to each other, as a race, on a subconscious psychic level. We call it the Bond, it's how we know each other even after regeneration.”  
“Regeneration?”  
The Doctor smiled, “one thing at a time, we'll get to that later.”  
  
River finished her work and turned to the Doctor, nodding gravely, “it's ready.”  
“You put it together just like I said?”  
She smirked and stood up from where she had crouched over the device, throwing her hair back dramatically. “Oh no, sweetie. I did it right.”  
“Now wait just a moment, this is a very complex and difficult procedure, you have to do it just like I-”  
“Oh stop complaining, you'll get wrinkles.”  
“River...!”  
“Here we go!”  
  
She depressed a control atop the infernal contraption and it immediately began to thrum with power, and the entire control room was suffused in a brilliant white glow of blinding light. The Doctor looked down in shock, he saw Dave, the light was bright enough that he saw straight through the dark glasses to the frightened eyes of a child beneath, and Dave stared up at him in wonderment as he stared back into old eyes, ancient yet no less frightened then his own. A new sense of understanding whipped into place between them, a bond no less real and solid then the firmest steel chain. They felt each other's presence intimately, and knew something of one another in the deepest firmament of the mind  
“That's...”  
“Yes,” the Doctor whispered, as his expression crumpled into a mixture of despair, loss and longing, “the Bond.”  
“I know you,” Dave murmured, “I mean, I can feel you- in my mind. I never knew how alone I was before.”  
“Time Lords are not meant to be alone.”  
They embraced; Dave threw himself at the Doctor who scooped him up and held him against his chest. There could be no doubt, they both knew the truth. Everything test, the heartbeats, the blood chemistry, the sensors of the TARDIS, told them nothing compared to the Bond.  
  
River opened her eyes as the light finally faded, and saw them. She could see what had occurred between them, and suddenly, miraculously, the Doctor- her Doctor- was no longer alone. When he looked back at her, the sheer weight and desolation in his eyes that she only noticed now that it had lifted brought her instantly to tears.  
“Who am I?” Dave asked.   
“I don't know,” said the Doctor, “I'll help you find out.”  
“Thanks,”  
“It's,” the Doctor was momentarily lost for words, “my pleasure to meet you!”  
  
The TARDIS  groaned and heaved through the temporal storm between moments. They had been travelling for three weeks, and the Doctor was finally ready to let Dave take the wheel, so to speak. River was monitoring their progress through the vortex on the main monitor, while the Doctor stood behind Dave.  
“I can't do this, man,” Dave muttered.  
“Yes you can,” the Doctor squeezed his shoulder, “just like I showed you. Once you get the knack of it, it gets really easy.”  
“Really?” River looked up from her controls with a grin, “what's your excuse then?”  
“Hey!” The Doctor pouted playfully in mock offence, “my landings are perfect!”  
“Don't worry Dave,” River winked at him, “if he can manage it then you'll get it in no time.”  
Dave nodded and smiled shyly. He couldn't help it whenever River winked at him, and she did it a lot.  
“Right then!” The Doctor said smartly, “let's do this properly! Mister Strider, when I tap the console I would like you to bring the TARDIS to an emergency stop safely and quickly, please!”  
The Doctor reached across and tapped the edge of the console with his left hand. Dave nodded grimly and his hands flashed over the controls. He yanked on the emergency over-ride cable and span the faucet-head that brought the main power lines to bear. The central column of the console shuddered and rose violently as the TARDIS took a deep breath of power. He yanked on a knife-switch and threw the TARDIS back into normal space\time. Across from him River called out her readings.  
“Normal time-flow!” She shouted, “establishing parameters!”  
“Right,” Dave muttered, his hands flying now, “I can do this,”  
“Yes, come on Dave!” The Doctor was rubbing his hands together gleefully, in between grabbing on to a nearby stanchion whenever the TARDIS began rocking.  
“Doctor!” River yelled, “gravity well! We're heading into a planet!”  
“Planet? There's no planet. There really shouldn't be a planet!” He started patting Dave on the shoulder madly, “we really don't want there to be a planet! Dave! Dave!”  
  
By now the TARDIS was pinwheeling freely through the atmosphere of a violently blue world like a glass marble tossed into the blackness. The velocity of the planet hit the impenetrable shell of the TARDIS in a shower of explosive deflagration and the little blue box became a comet screeching through the sky. A ring of decompressing gasses spread out in a ring as it passed the hypersonic barrier and still Dave hammered at the controls.  
“Too fast!” River was shouting, “we can't take this!”  
The Doctor leaned over slightly. Dave was standing rigidly like a frozen image, hands gripping tightly on mismatching controls that responded avidly to his every twitch.  
“But what if we can,” the Doctor whispered, “what if we could make it?”  
“We'll make it,” Dave grinned, “I got this.”  
The TARDIS exploded through a snowdrift atop a high peak, tumbling wildly through the air and leaving behind a long black scar scored into the mountainside. The descent began to slow as it grabbed for purchase in the air, immeasurable energies gripping and clawing at the very fabric of reality the TARDIS began, slowly, to level off. The spinning blue box ploughed through the upper reaches of a high forest- a forest of perfectly, vividly crystalline blue trees and sending leaves flying everywhere.  
“We're going to hit!” River screamed.  
“No way!” Dave crowed, “this is landing!”  
  
The field where the TARDIS came eventually to lay was actually a high plateau, a natural flat space that was dressed in long grasses and scrub, an almost perfectly level area at the top of a natural rise of rock, a table jutting out of the forest bed below and surrounded by blankets of misty cloud. The doors opened and River staggered out first, hugging herself against the cold. The TARDIS had scored a long furrow in the grasses, and now formed the period-point at the base of a mile-long exclamation mark. The grasses, like the trees, bushes and plant life, were all deep blue.  
“Where are we?”  
The Doctor was the next to saunter out of the TARDIS, followed by Dave. He made a big show of throwing his arms wide and taking in a big, deep gulp of air.  
“Ahh, Mandrothrakis, the sapphire world! I haven't been here in a very long time.”  
River turned slowly. “You know this place? We didn't come here by accident, did we?”  
Behind the Doctor, Dave grinned wide and waggled his eyebrows.  
“How'd you like it? Any landing you can walk away from, right?”  
“You planned this? Both of you?” River was furious, and advanced on the now flustered Doctor, “do you have any idea what could have happened just now? The damage that could have been caused?”  
“Yes,” the Doctor smiled enigmatically, “but then, anyone can handle an emergency stop in open void. This was more of a challenge, and both Dave and I felt he was ready to try it.”  
“You could have told me!”  
“Oh-h-h-h you would only have thought of some very good reason not to! But look, here we are! We made it, and just in time for some tea, if anyone's in the mood for a picnic?”  
River shook an admonishing finger at Dave, who smirked.  
“And don't you think this is over, young man. We're having a long talk about taking stupid risks later.”  
  
Later, there was no time. There was a picnic to be had. They laid out a red-and-white gingham pattered cloth on the bare grass of the plateau and the Doctor produced a fully laden picnic basket from somewhere within the TARDIS' voluminous innards. There were sandwiches filled with the delicacies of a hundred worlds, a jar full of tiny white things which were deliciously sweet and tartly sour all at once, along with some kind of violently green mustard. Naturally, there was also a thermos flask of hot, sweet tea. Dave didn't like it, but the Doctor assured him it was a taste worth cultivating. After they had eaten, River announced that whilst they were on an alien world that she, for one, had never heard of she might as well take a look around. The Doctor was about to say something about staying close to the TARDIS when she held up a hand to quiet him.  
“Don't worry, I think we're safe enough up here from any rampaging beasts. And besides, I have this.” She produced her pistol, which made the Doctor wince, “don't worry, I promise I won't need it.”  
“You sure you don't want to stick around?” Dave held up a sandwich, “some of these are hella moist.”  
“You boy's have plenty to talk about. I'll be back by nightfall,” she nodded. It was obvious she was giving them an excuse to talk without her around, and they understood.  
  
The Doctor stared off into the distance, thoughtfully. Dave glanced at him, then at his sandwich.  
“So.”  
“Nice landing, by the way. I thought River was going to explode!”  
“Yeah, it went well.”  
“You're a natural. Are you starting to hear the telepathic circuits in your mind?”  
“Yeah. The TARDIS is a classy ride.”  
“Mm.”  
The Doctor bit into a sandwich of his own thoughtfully. It was the first time they had been alone like this, properly alone. Though the Doctor was a wonderful teacher, Dave had felt he was always holding some things back when he knew River might be just in earshot.  
“Doctor?”  
“Mm?”  
“So, we're Time Lords, right?”  
“That's right.”  
“Where do we, like, come from?”  
“Gallifrey. That's the name of our home, a planet far away from here, in the constellation of Kasterborous.”  
“Where's that?”  
“I could give you the co-ordinates, but... it wouldn't mean much. It's not there any more.”  
“I was kind of wondering about that. You haven't really said anything about the others like us.”  
“Dave...” the Doctor paused, pushing a great pain and sorrow down as it threatened to overwhelm him, “there are no others. For the longest time I thought I was the only one left. There's no more Gallifrey, no more Time Lords. Just us.”  
“What happened?”  
“A great war. It raged- it is still raging in fact- within a time-locked zone outside the universe. A place where no one can ever reach, and from which no one will ever return. That's where they all went.”  
“Well what about me, then? Where do I come from?”  
“I always wondered. If anyone had escaped from the war. But it was impossible, there was no-one. Maybe... maybe you were hidden on purpose, sent away and placed under a perception filter that stopped our people ever finding you and dragging you in to the nightmare.”  
“Do you think I have parents, then?”  
“Everyone has parents.”  
“Even you?”  
The Doctor smiled, “even me.”  
“And kids? Got any?”  
The Doctor's smile remained, but it had become fixed and unmoving. His smile was for Dave's benefit but what flashed in his eyes was just for himself.  
“Once.”  
Dave left it at that.  
  
They pulled camping chairs out of the TARDIS and set them up, with a third for River when she returned, around a small thick-walled copper bowl. When the Doctor aimed his screwdriver at the bowl, it sparked and sputtered a small but serviceable flame lit in it.  
“There! No camp is complete without one!”  
“Where'd you get that thing?”  
“Never you mind. Just remember, if ever some rather angry men in ceremonial head-dresses covered in beads come looking for the Eternal and Unending Flame of Pash-Hetep, you know nothing.”  
“Got it,” Dave grinned. “You get up to all sorts of crap, Doctor.”  
“Like you wouldn't believe,” he laughed.  
“Is that what Time Lords do? Just wander around taking stuff?”  
The Doctor grinned and leaned over, so that the fire illuminated his face dramatically from below, “I'll have you know we are the staunch defenders of the Web of Time, the keepers of order, and the protectors of all that shall be.”  
“Sounds impressive.”  
“It is,” the Doctor put on a mockingly deep voice.  
“So why do you go around in a bow-tie then?”  
“Because they're cool.”  
“Well, I got to agree with you on that one.”  
“Good.”  
“I still think you just go around doing whatever you feel like.”  
“If you're going to follow something, it might as well be a feeling.”  
“Deep, man.”  
“Any more questions?”  
“Yeah, the big one.”  
“I'm ready.” He winked.  
“Why are you called the Doctor? I mean, it's not a name. You're not seriously called that? Is that like a thing?”  
“That's a question I wanted to come to later.”  
“It's important though, isn't it?”  
“Yes,”  
“Well?”  
The Doctor sighed and dusted a little imaginary lint from his lapels before settling back in his chair and looking up. The sun would be setting soon, and the sky was a fading cobalt-blue.  
“One thing a Time Lord must always be aware of is the fixed points in time. They are moments in the history of the universe that cannot- must not- ever be tampered with. The whole structure of the universe would crumble otherwise. We can go where we want, and we can change things here and there, but never a fixed point.”  
“What does that have to do with-”  
“I'm coming to that! A Time Lord's name is more then just a simple word. It identifies them- it is more individual then anything else about them, it is something unique in all the universe. And when a Time Lord's name is spoken it can only refer to one possible person. That can mean creating a fixed point in time, a moment when only one possible creature in the universe is identified. A Time Lord's name defines him, but it can also trap him. That's why, when we travel, we take on a travelling-name to use openly.”  
“Like 'The Doctor,' right?”  
“Right. A Time Lord will never, ever reveal their true name outside of Gallifrey, except to one they trust with their very existence.”  
“So, you're the Doctor. Is there, like, the Lawyer, the Accountant, the Gynaecologist...”  
“Well you get the principle.”  
“Sweet! When do I get to choose one then? Can I be, like, The DJ?”  
“When the time comes, I'm sure you'll know.”  
“But, I've been telling people my name all my life! Is that a problem?”  
“Oh, I wouldn't worry. Dave Strider is just the name you were given to disguise you, I'd know if it was your true name.”  
“So I don't even know my real name?”  
“Um. I'm sorry, no,”  
  
Dave pondered this deeply, staring up into the heavens. Whatever his true name was, whatever his real origins, the answers had to be out there. He started to see why the Doctor could be content to just drift about wherever a whim should take him. There was a universe of answers waiting to be found.  
“Doctor?”  
“Yes?”  
“I'm glad you found me.”  
“I'm glad, too.”  
  



	3. Chapter 3

Doctor River Song, professor of archaeological antiquities, holder of the Sealed Ribbon, proud bearer of the medal of Arkash for her work on the comparative study of early-universe megaliths, found herself trudging through a blue slime beneath a blue canopy of leaves that was broken only by the unremitting blue of the sky above. She cursed under her breath in a dialect that had existed thousands of years previously- or in the future depending on when exactly they had wound up- that consisted entirely of overt threats. There was nothing to be seen on this, admittedly pretty, planet. She had been a part of countless archaeological digs and exploratory expeditions, and she knew deep in her gut when a place was barren of anything interesting. As pleasing to the eye as Mandrothrakis was, the entire planet was nothing but plants and lower-order life. The only reason she had gone exploring was to give the boys, as she fondly now regarded them, a bit of time to bond alone. She reflected, as she ducked under a deep vermilion branch, that there would come a time, soon, when the Doctor would have to take Dave to places where only a Time Lord could go. She knew that they wouldn't say anything to her directly, but that would be a moment when she had to go. With luck, the luck that had held for her so far, she would meet back up with the Doctor again when he was ready. The looping paradox of their relationship practically demanded it and so she told herself that she had nothing to be concerned about. And yet, and yet.  
  
The Doctor had always needed people, she understood that. A Time Lord was not meant to go alone in the universe, and she knew better then most why. But before, it had been enough for him to share his life with whatever drifters happened across his path. Now he had Dave, someone who could understand him, truly, in a way that no outsider ever could no matter their best intentions. Looking at her own feelings in a rational, scientific way Doctor Song realised that there was growing in her a deep jealousy. She wiped a gloved hand across her nose and sniffed, refusing to show any outward sign of it. Such feelings were beneath her and entirely unjustified- after all, who was she to deny the Doctor of all people a chance to finally connect with one of his own race after so long? It was the very least that fate owed him after all that he had been through.  
  
Yes, looking at things with a cold, logical rationality there was no reason whatsoever to feel at all put out that Dave had joined them. She told herself that over and over, and resolved to keep on smiling. It wasn't Dave's fault, he was completely blameless and she couldn't help but be charmed a little by his constant self-conscious posturing. In a few years, with a little more experience under his belt, that affectation of sang-froid would become real and not just a protective shell- and then he would be irresistible. Sighing, she ran her scanner over a couple of vaguely interesting flowers. Nothing. She had told them she would be back by sunset, but keeping herself occupied for so long would be truly excruciating.  
  
The day was ending, the Mandrothrakian night came suddenly and River realised she was further away from the TARDIS then she had intended with her explorations. The last rays of the sun illuminated the grove she walked through in shafts of dying azure light, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of motion and turned sharply. An outgrowth of foliage that wound its' way around the solid trunk of a nearby tree had suddenly exploded into a vivid array of flowers, all of them blooming at once with remarkable speed. Like a silent flash of fireworks the tree was suddenly coated in tiny scarlet flowers. Now, that was something new. She approached slowly, consulting her scanner. Night-blooming flowers were not unknown, and the unusual colouration on this almost uniformly blue world must have been intended for vibrant enticing effect. She began picking up some unusual readings and hesitated, checking her scanner. Oddly, the flowers were building up an energetic charge. As she watched, one of the flowers gave out a sudden sharp crack and a tiny flicker of electricity arced out, earthing down the body of the tree's trunk and leaving a black carbonised mark. River took a step back, still fascinated. She began recording readings to study later, and was so intent on her work that she didn't notice more of the vivid red flowers snapping open all around her.  
  
The Doctor glanced out over the forest spreading out below their vantage point and frowned. Now that the mists had faded with the end of the day, the view was clear and crisp.  
“Did you just see something?”  
“Like what?” Dave looked up from another sandwich.  
“Like, I don't know, it was sort of lightning.”  
“Naw, there's no clouds or anything. Hey-” that time Dave saw it too, a flicker in the forest like a flashbulb going of. They looked at each other for a moment then back out at the forest where, now, repeated flashes were going off beneath the tree line.  
“Someone going nuts with a camera?” Dave suggested lightly.  
“No, there's no one on this planet, no one at all. And certainly no miniature lightning storms. And River is out there!”  
“How much you want to bet she's right in the middle of that shit,” Dave was already on his feet, “come on!”  
  
The reached the base of the mesa the TARDIS rested on just as River exploded out of the treeline at a sprint. Her clothing was burnt and smoking in several places and she was firing randomly over her  shoulder. She was yelling something about flowers as the Time Lords ran toward her. The Doctor reached out for her and instead she shoved him away.  
“I said,” she yelled, “RUN!”  
They were standing in a field of blue grasses and in the growing darkness the spreading carpet of scarlet flowers exploding into life came like a black wave out of the forest. Already the flowers were developing coronas of electrical energy that sparkled like tiny jewels flickering on that dark carpet. The Doctor snapped out his screwdriver and held it out.  
“This is all wrong,” he complained, “there's nothing like this on Mandrothrakis.”  
River grabbed his arm and pulled hard, “the planet seems to disagree with you! Now move!”  
It was already too late for that, however. The wave of blossoming plants surrounded them- and kept going. They were spreading through the grasses and up the rock face of the mesa itself- with a terrific grinding, crunching sound the stone splintered and cracked as countless blossoms pushed through. The Doctor was fascinated.  
“This is something new- they're spreading, into everything- these plants can even penetrate solid rock- that's amazing!”  
“Hey,” said Dave, “anyone got any idea what this here is all about?”  
  
Dave was standing rigidly still and around him there was a circle of spotless, untouched grass. The blossoms simply refused to come near him, it was as though they butted up against an invisible barrier. When Dave moved, that unseen influence moved with him- blossoms curled up and fled before him, just as they rose up again after him. Instinctively River and the Doctor moved up close to him.  
“Right,” said the Doctor, “this is what I suggest. Let's all just move quickly and carefully back to the TARDIS-”  
“Look!” River pointed, and there was a deafening wrench as the rock of the mesa broke down and began to fall apart, “run!”  
“No! The TARDIS-!” But it was too late. The others grabbed the Doctor under the arms and dragged him bodily away while the rock plateau began collapsing behind them. Where there had been a sturdy rock mesa where they had landed, soon there was only a pile of tumbling rocks- and somewhere within was the TARDIS. They fled into the forest, the only place left to run, as a landslide began behind them.  
  
They only stopped running when the noise of grinding rock behind them ceased. They were in among the trees now, and in the distance they could see the miniature lightning-flash bursts from the deadly flowers occasionally blinking through the trees.  
“We have to go back,” the Doctor announced firmly, “right away, we have to make sure the TARDIS wasn't damaged.”  
“Don't worry, it would take more then a few rocks,” River observed.  
“We have to check!”  
“Dude, relax,” Dave leaned over, catching his breath, “we ain't doing anything 'till we figure out what the deal is with the freaky plants.”  
The Doctor was already studying some of the nearer ones, running his sonic screwdriver warily over a bloom at arms' length.  
“Yes, what exactly are these things? I've been on this planet before, there was nothing like this.”  
River interrupted his musing. “Whatever they are, they have a co-ordinated ability to strategise and direct their actions. Along with the electrical ability, they aren't like any plants I've ever seen. Could they be artificial?”  
“No, they're alive- we saw them bloom, and when Dave walks near to them they wither away.”  
  
Dave held out a hand experimentally and a spray of flowers struggled to get away from him, visibly curling and shrinking away.  
“Shit's crazy,” he murmured, “why don't they like me? I say something or what? Maybe the local plant life just can't handle a fly-ass bitchin' dude, you know?”  
“Dave!” River snapped in exasperation, “this is serious, could you please at least stay quiet while we work this out?”  
  
She didn't mean it, not the way she had said it, but it came out that way anyway and the implication was clear. Let the actual grown-ups handle this, stay out of the way.  Dave's expression was unreadable behind his shades, his mouth was a flat inexpressive line. She didn't mean it, really, but she had said it anyway. The Doctor licked his lips nervously and gave a little laugh.  
“Come on,” he said softly, “we'll get out of this, it'll take more then a couple of weeds to keep us down!” He tried to sound jaunty about it in a way that didn't persuade the others.  
“Well, shit, why not just say how you really feel. Jesus.”  
“Dave! We could be in real trouble here and I just- I just need you to-”  
“Yeah I know, stay the fuck out of the way. Yeah, I get it. Sorry for being such a fucking drag and everything. Hey, why don't I just get the fuck out.”  
“Dave! River!” The Doctor snapped, “now come on, there's no need for this.”  
“Don't stop now, let it all fuckin' out!” Dave was yelling now, “hell I just found out I'm some big deal time guy, go ahead and tell me how it's all bullshit, I was waiting for that sooner or later anyway!”  
“You're being a stupid little child! Does that make you happy?”  
“I'm a fuckin' cheery-ass motherfucker over here!”  
  
The Doctor looked around slowly as something caught his attention. All around them the flowers were behaving differently now. The only light in the forest now came from the flickering of their electrical discharges, and the flowers were forming a ring around them. Sheets of electrical discharge flickered higher and higher, in a ring around the little stand of trees they occupied. The clear zone surrounding Dave was noticeably ebbing back and forth now, growing and lessening in wild pulsations.  
“Actually,” the Doctor said carefully, “I really think you should both stop arguing. Right now, um, please.”  
It was no good though, they had gone too far.  
“You don't know anything about what you're getting into!” River yelled, “you're irresponsible, immature, you're going to get us all killed!”  
“Well let's hear your idea then! Come on, let's hear it, what does the great River Song reckon we should do? I'm all fuckin' ears right about now!”  
“For a start we need to work out what's caused these flowers to appear and I'd have a much easier time doing it without-”  
“Yeah without some asshole kid, right? Right? Am I spoilin' up the twisted little family circus you got going on here? Am I the reason mummy and daddy gettin' divorced huh?”  
River span on him and spat, “you- you arrogant, aggravating immature little-”  
She was cut off as the Doctor collided with her. Where she had been standing, a vivid blast of light seared the air and the side of a nearby tree exploded into carbonized ash. From his position on top of River the Doctor yelled at them both. “I said! Be quiet!”  
  
In the sudden silence, broken only by the crackle of rapidly cooling bark, they all slowly looked around. They were surrounded by an unbroken arc of red, and it was now so close that the nearest flowers were in arms' reach.  
“What are they?” River whispered.  
“Whatever they are,” the Doctor mused, “they seemed to get closer the more you two were arguing with one another.”  
Dave snorted, “what, they can hear us? Come on.”  
“Well,” said the Doctor slowly, “if they can, then I suggest we all start saying very, very nice things about them.”  
“You're kidding?” Dave grinned, fractionally, “you want us to make nice with the weeds?”  
The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at a nearby bloom for a moment, and observed the results. “Actually, that's exactly what I'm saying. These plants are generating a low-level psychic field, I believe they really are picking up on your feelings.”  
“Fine.” Dave sat up cross-legged and folded his arms. “Hey. Flower dudes. I think you're so fuckin' great. I mean, I can't even. As far as flowers go? You are... like... the best flowers? I guess?”  
  
The Doctor and River shared a look. River sighed in annoyance.  
“The Doctor might seem like he hasn't got the slightest idea what's going on most of the time, but if you would just shut up and listen-” She was cut off by another lightning-flash, this time a patch of grass lit up by her thigh and she had to get up in a hurry to stamp out a little fire. All the while the Doctor was watching them, the flowers, and the readout of his screwdriver with interest.  
“Nothing, when Dave was talking. River, it's you- you're the one they're reacting to!”  
“Me?”  
“I'm starting to understand it now, in fact I think,” he grinned and straightened up, patting down his lapels proudly, “I think, I have worked this whole thing out!”  
  
Whatever he had been about to impart on them was interrupted by a deafening crash from within the forest, followed by a series of low, throaty concussions.  
“That sounded like an explosion!” The Doctor said.  
“That sounded like a portable gel-mix flamethrower with a compression blast attachment,” said River. The Doctor gave her a look and she winked at him, “they're awfully fun you know.”  
  
The group heard them coming, and felt the heat, before they saw anything. They were very close, and dressed in powered combat armour that deflected the wrathful blasts of electricity from the flowers, which wilted under repeated concussions from their flame weapons. The Doctor ran a hand through his hair and beckoned for the others to stand near to him.  
“Aren't we going to, like, run?” Dave whispered.  
“Whoever they are,” the Doctor replied, they obviously teleported in close to us, and they chose weapons that would be useful for getting through the undergrowth rather then sneaking about.”  
“Teleported?”  
“I didn't hear any vessel land.”  
“So..?”  
“So, that tells me that they're here to say hello.”  
They crashed through the underbrush violently, and the leader lifted her assault helmet visor to reveal a snarling reptilian mien.  
“I don't like being stolen from!”  
“Ah,” the Doctor swallowed and adjusted his bow-tie, “this is awkward.”  
“When I don't like something, me and my sisters here get a little... twitchy.”  
By now they had all three of them lifted their helms to reveal Rakkhed, Rakkhtar and Rakkheel, the Three Sisters Lacking Mercy, huntress-assassins of the Green Court. Rakkhed, in the lead, lifted the blunt ugly snout of her flamethrower and levelled it directly at the Doctor.  
“You won't like me when I'm twitchy,” she hissed, “you won't like anything. You'll be dead!”  
  



End file.
